Mango Cheese(cup)cake | Baking Partners Challenge #9

For me cheesecake was a dream. I made my first cheese cake with egg replacer and cream cheese while in US. After coming here somehow I didn't feel like making one. The cream cheese was either tangy or not available. But still I went on bookmarking yummy cheesecakes that I saw on web. 

Finally I got down to make one or few when I was pushed into it thanks to Swathi who wanted me to suggest a cheesecake. Obviously I chose the no-bake luscious mango cheesecake from DivineTaste. Ofcourse you can go for any fruit/flavour but mangoes are in season and though I am no mango lover I thought why not give the King of Fruits its due. 

I had wanted to make individual cheesecakes and I went with just one-fourth of the recipe.I had used lined in my regular muffin pans for this and they turned out best. They were devoured off within moments. With this recipe you can get about 6-8 regular muffins.

Ingredients:

Crust:

Digestive Biscuits powdered : about 6-8 tbsp (I used one regular packet of 8 bisuits crushed in a blender)

Butter: 2 tbsp cubed/chopped into small pieces 

Filling:

Powdered Sugar: 4-6 tbsp

Thick Yogurt: 1 cup drained overnight 

Paneer/Cottage Cheese: 1/2 cup

Water: 7tbsp

Chinagrass /Agar-agar/Kaanten: 4 tbsp

Mango Puree: 1/2 cup (1 small or 1/2 big mango peeled,chopped and pureed with about 1-2 tbsp of sugar)

Vanilla extract: 1/4 tsp 

Glaze:

Mango Puree: 2-3 tbsp

Water: 2 tsp

Sugar: 2 tsp + more as per taste

Lemon Juice: few drops /almost 1/2 -3/4 tsp

Preparation:

Crust:

Powder the bisuits in a blender or ziploc. I used the blender. Make a fine powder of about 8 tbsp and then blend in the chopped/cubed butter to get a mixture.

Line about 6-8 muffin cups/pan with double liners . Add about 1 tbsp of this biscuit mix onto each cup and press evenly along the base to make the base for our cheesecake.

Chill in the freezer for about 15 minutes or in the fridge for atleast 30 minutes or until the filling is ready.

Filling:

Chop agar agar into small pieces and soak in enough (7 tbsp for me) water till it softens. While this is being done, blend together the curd cheese and paneer till smooth and creamy,put this in a mixing bowl and keep ready the mango puree.

I had drained my yogurt in a vessel using a cheesecloth and a strainer and left it overnight in the fridge.You can use the whey collected in the vessel for other purposes like making doughs,stock etc.Anyway you need to use the cheese in the strainer for the cheesecake filling.

When the chinagrass turns soft,heat it in low flame,stirring continuously till it dissolves in water and ready for use. This takes about 5-6 minutes and requires very low heat for melting.On another burner, place the mango puree and heat it on medium flame. Do not allow both these mixes to boil. Once the chinagrass solution is ready, remove both from heat and mix in the chinagrass solution to the hot mango solution stirring well.

Slowly add the mango-agar solution to the  paneer -curd cheese mix along with powdered sugar and vanilla, stirring well until well blended. Now filling is ready.

Once the crust is well chilled, pour spoonful of filling atop the crust, level with a spoon and chill for atleast 3 hours or overnight in the fridge.

Glaze:

Mix together all the items for the glaze and heat in on medium fire till it comes to boil. Reduce the heat and let it cook for few more minutes till it thickens.

Once the cheesecake chills for atleast an hour you can spread the glaze atop and let it chill again for few more hours or even overnight.

Yumm... Cheesecupcake is ready to be attacked..

A simple fuss free cheesecake that requires no baking. Only chilling and patience to go through the steps and wait for it to be ready. You can go for a round pan for making a single big cheesecake which has to be cut and served.I prefer the individual mess free ones.Also despite the mango being naturally sweet, I had added sugar while pureeing the mango pieces. So the overall cheesecake turned out sweeter that the original recipe.This extra sweetness/sugar I suppose is needed as the curd available is basically tangy and same might go for paneer.

Lets see what other baking partners have prepared this time. Check out here for more treats